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Tuesday, November 14, 2017

The closing words to The Great Gatsby are etched into the slab in front of the monument. Despite the disappointing initial sales of the book, Max Perkins (Fitzgerald's editor at Scribner) wrote him: "The amount of meaning you get into a sentence, the dimension and intensity of the impressions you make a paragraph carry, are most extraordinary."

About Me

I am the author of Gardens of Stone: The Cemeteries of New York from Colonial Times to the Present. (Fonthill, 2016) Green-Wood Cemetery (Arcadia Publishing, 2008) and Grave Undertakings (New Horizon Press, 2003). For 20 years I have been a regular contributor to American Cemetery & American Funeral Director Magazines. In that time, I have profiled a number of noted cemeteries, including Green-Wood, Calvary, Oakland, Gate of Heaven, Salem Fields, Ferncliff, Kensico and Moravian. My interest in cemeteries began as an offshoot of my career as a funeral director. Having spent time in many cemeteries in my capacity as a funeral director, made me see that graveyards are so much more than a place to bury the dead. They are also repositories of history, set on bucolic grounds, where one can admire diverse architectural styles while reflecting upon the intersection of life and death.